Wednesday, March 17, 2010

When the cat’s away, the mice will play.

View over Gowrie DamThe beginning of a new week and we are halfway through March already. Time flies when you are having fun as they say! The days have definitely cooled down a little with the recent rain we have had although I’m sure the heat will be back no doubt.

Small Leopard Tortoise seen on drive.

The morning drive on Monday started off with a bang with Jared and I finding Mixo just as we were starting the drive. This was followed by Induna and Karula altogether. What a great way to start a morning. Jared also managed to spot some Shelley’s Francolins which are quite special to see so for me as birder I enjoyed that immensely.

The Ellie herd came down the Gowrie dam for a drink in the middle of the day and we had fun watching the little ones at play for a half hour or so before they disappeared into the trees behind the dam.

The afternoon drive went out with Rexon who was with us for the latter half of the day to say hello and goodbye. And after drive he presented his Walala Wasala chat for a half hour to talk to everyone about his plans for the future and what he has been up to over the recent weeks.

Tuesday morning was fantastic as Saseka was spotted on drive with Patrick and Jared. For the newer members of the team it was most exciting as none of us have seen Saseka yet since we have been here and Jared was the luckiest of all as he was on the Jigga live to see it. Oh well, we’ll all get our chance I say! You never know what is around the next corner.

The rest of day’s viewing out on the PM drive saw some lovely white rhino and buffalo and we went out on the night drive to see what we could see but had to cut the drive short due the batteries being low. Our battery chargers are feeling a little temperamental at the moment it seems.

Mixo or Induna's tracks as they moved along the road.

As per usual we are kept very entertained in camp with the local wildlife. The vervet monkeys went to investigate Marc’s outside bathroom area in the morning and found his toothbrush! One of them decided this was a great tool and stole it, climbed a tree and started trying to ‘eat’ it. Maybe it was a case of monkey see, monkey do and he was trying to brush his teeth?! Whatever was the case, I don’t think Marc will be wanting his toothbrush back when he gets home from leave. So it seems whether the monkeys are stealing biscuits from Herman’s room, a toothbrush from Marc’s bathroom or the baboons having lunch at our house, the primates are playing us for fools.

Our new Sony camera is a fantastic new addition to the family and we are all enjoying it. The new camera does work differently from the older Sony and we are all getting used how it works. The new camera works in HD and we have better quality on screen. On the older camera we had a focus extender which we used as a ‘cheat’ for the zoom which we all loved but the picture quality with the zooming became worse the more you used it. In terms of picture quality for HD our newer Sony serves it true function which is to allow the cameraman to check his focus at close quarters but we are unable to record this process which in turn does not allow us to ‘cheat’ anymore. We hope this clarifies a little of the ‘zooming’ talk we have been discussing as of late.